Breaking News (PG RATING)
Genre: Comedy/Political Satire

LOG LINE: When a computer glitch swaps the programming of the world’s largest TV network with a tiny Canadian town’s, an idealistic reporter uncovers a vast conspiracy to control mass media.

SIMILAR FILMS:
Network
Broadcast News
State and Main
Groundhog Day
Life or Something Like it

CAST/TYPES:

Whitney:
Don Speigel:
Linkhorn:
Canadian Broadcaster:
Canadian Reporter:

STATUS: Detailed Outline
SETTING: New York/Rural Canada
BUDGET $5-7 Million

SYNOPSIS:
In the not-so-distant future of media conglomeration, the NCNC (National Central News Corp) is the single TV source that feeds news and information to 80% of Americans. In a sneaky effort to expand their scope even farther, they switch their broadcasting technology to a new quasi-legal and somewhat unproven technology.

When the switch happens, instead of boosting NCNC’s broadcasting power, their signal is accidentally swapped with a tiny local TV station broadcasting from Saskatoon in northern Saskatchewan, the Northern Canadian News Channel. Suddenly everyone in America is left watching ice fishing.

Unwilling to admit the illegal finagling they were undertaking, and unable to fix the glitch, they send anchor Don Speigel to the tiny Canadian city to regain control of the news machine. However, by this time, the Canadians are having fun with their newly expanded audience of 300 million and are unwilling to give up the reigns.

To make matters worse, Karl Linkhorn, the politician who orchestrated the relaxed rules enabling NCNC’s media monopoly only did so in exchange for a degree of secret control of the station’s editorial content. He has demanded a certain important spin on an emerging story and is not happy about the loss of control. Meanwhile, the American public becomes more and more fascinated with the Canadian’s folksy local news.

It’s not until Whitney, the young, idealistic technician from CNCN, arrives in Saskatoon that the pieces begin to come together. As she tries to solve the riddle of the technical glitch, she begins to uncover the darker secret about the company’s political dealings.

Desperate to steer the Canadian TV station’s coverage, a CNCN employee starts a forest fire in a nearby old growth forest. The Canadians take the bait and go out to cover the story, but the fire grows out of control trapping Whitney just as she uncovers not only how to fix the glitch but how to expose Linkhorn’s plot to dominate all media and take over the world.

When everything seems lost, a lunatic weatherman from California persuades the Canadians to air his forecast that impending sunspot activity is going to transmit deadly radioactivity through television sets so everyone must get out of their houses at a certain time. When they do, all of America is treated to an amazing display of the Aurora Borealis.